We think of opera as big, lavish, and very expensive. Yet going against all those seeming verities of the opera scene, this is the 10th anniversary season of Vancouver’s Opera Pro Cantanti company, an organization that tells a very different story of lyric theatre and how it isn’t just about big stages and international prima donnas.

Spring 2017 promises celebrations and surprises, plus regular fare and a quiet revolution of sorts. Classical audiences face only one problem: what, among all the options, to choose?
There hasn’t been a development this revolutionary in decades: Vancouver Opera offers its first Vancouver Opera Festival, combining three productions, with add-ons including Tanya Tagaq and Ute Lemper, from April 28 to May 15.